Music Feature Enhancements

[Brent]

This is an open post about possible music feature enhancements that could be added to the core SageTV product. I'm actually having pretty good success with the music player (now that Andy pointed out I was using the MP3 tags incorrectly), but I'm thinking of what additional things could be added to SageTV to make it even better. I'll throw in my thoughts, but I'd be interested to hear from others on what they'd like to see added/changed for music in SageTV:

• Add additional tag fields to sort by via mp3 tags
• Ability to read and use the popularimeter tag. This tag could open up the ability to rate songs right from SageTV as well as import the ratings tags from iTunes (using a manual export from the iTunes database and import into the popularimeter tag).
• Smart playlists much in the way iTunes uses smartplaylists
• Ability to use other visualizations like the ones used for winamp for instance.

Anyone have any other thoughts?

See post #35 for my latest update - it focuses on the big things that need to happen from SageTV first

[tmiranda]

1. Vizualizations.
2. Error-free tag parsing.

I'd like to see these basics handled before any "golly-gee-wiz" items.

[GTwannabe]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

1. Vizualizations.
2. Error-free tag parsing.

I'd like to see these basics handled before any "golly-gee-wiz" items.

Don't forget the ability to play a CD!

[MeInMaui]

Originally Posted by GTwannabe

Don't forget the ability to play a CD!

Haha!

I gave up on that years ago.

[CPA]

-gapless playback
-replaygain support
-smart playlists (support for multiple genres per tag...semicolon seperated)
PLEASE!!

[lovingHDTV]

I'd like a MusicIP plugin. I use this in winamp all the time and love it.

[warrenlj]

I would consider streaming web radio as a music feature. It would be nice to have an interface to this so others could put together stvi's to accommodate web radio thru the mvp's.

[GKusnick]

Originally Posted by GTwannabe

Don't forget the ability to play a CD!

Originally Posted by MeInMaui

Haha!

I gave up on that years ago.

I guess this is where I point out that there's a plugin for that. I realize the OP is talking about core features, but I think you're going to be waiting a long time for things like popularimeter to make it into the core. Plugins (in my opinion) are the way to go for most of the proposals on this thread.

[Brent]

Originally Posted by GKusnick

I guess this is where I point out that there's a plugin for that.

Never noticed that plugin before and I like the looks of it - does it work in SageMC by chance?

I realize the OP is talking about core features, but I think you're going to be waiting a long time for things like popularimeter to make it into the core. Plugins (in my opinion) are the way to go for most of the proposals on this thread.

You're probably right Greg about it taking a while for new core, music features. I agree most music enhancements can and probably should happen as plugins, but there are probably a few things such as tag support and better parsing that would be good improvements to the core.

[cncb]

Personally I really like the way Vista Media Center presents music. Basically it is albums grouped by whatever you select. That is, groups of cover art separated by vertical text that is the current group (particular artist, year, composer, etc.) and the whole thing scrolls horizontally. I was thinking about making an import to try to reproduce this but I think there would need to be support in the core/Studio first for vertical text and variable-sized table cells.

[Brent]

Originally Posted by cncb

I was thinking about making an import to try to reproduce this but I think there would need to be support in the core/Studio first for vertical text and variable-sized table cells.

Is that something that would have to be added in the core or could it be done in SageMC?

[GKusnick]

Originally Posted by Brent

Never noticed that plugin before and I like the looks of it - does it work in SageMC by chance?

The UI portion is tailored for the stock STV. There was talk at one point of porting it to SageMC, but I'm not a SageMC user and don't know what the status of that is. The underlying WMP interface library should be callable from any STV, so all that's needed is some UI code to display the track list.

[Slipshod]

What I'd really like to see is automatic tag population and coverart downloading.

[Madz]

My MP3 collection consists of a lot of single songs and relatively view entire albums so what I'd love is an option "Minimum Songs per Album" which would say how many songs you had to have off an album before it appears on the album page. Currently I find this page too noisy to be useful.

[Madz]

Originally Posted by Slipshod

What I'd really like to see is automatic tag population and coverart downloading.

Yep, I'd second that one too! Just going through this process manually now - it's taking FOREVER!

[evilpenguin]

While I agree that a lot of this can/has been accomplished by users via Studio I think music is important enough of an area that Sage needs to start dedicating some resources to improving this stuff themselves.

My list of music improvments is very short since I don't have any mp3's...

1) Net Radio
2) Visulizations

If these two things were added (and they both worked on the HDextender) i'd go from never playing music through Sage to using it every single day.

[EdwardATeller]

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

1) Net Radio
2) Visulizations

I have to second this request, especially visualizations. Is there a plugin that provides more than the two basic included with STV?

[Brent]

Any chance music improvements are on the radar for SageTVs next release?

[pjpjpjpj]

Originally Posted by Madz

Yep, I'd second that one too! Just going through this process manually now - it's taking FOREVER!

I third. I'm having a tough time getting all the cover art populated and correct. Seems like a lot of my MP3s are not showing the correct cover art, or else they don't have a file associated and therefore some other (wrong) picture shows.

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

While I agree that a lot of this can/has been accomplished by users via Studio....

Except some of us have no clue about using Studio...

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

....1) Net Radio
2) Visulizations
If these two things were added (and they both worked on the HDextender) i'd go from never playing music through Sage to using it every single day.

Exactly what he said. Currently I have only used SageTV's music for showing off to friends ("see, with this setup, I have my entire MP3 collection available on the TV!"). I don't tell them that it's too clumsy right now for me to even use regularly. But having streaming net radio through the HD extender and a more convenient music interface would make it my music-playing gadget of choice.

[JDizzy]

We are back here again...
I currently use J River Media for my music daily.
If Sage could integrate some of the items above I could use it for
music daily.
Visualizations would be key.